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Vodafone Qatar awarded fixed-line licence

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CIOL Bureau
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DUBAI: Vodafone Qatar said it was awarded the country's second fixed-line phone licence, sending its shares to an 11-week high on Tuesday.

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The award is subject to change pending approval at the company's extraordinary shareholder meeting, said the operator.

Vodafone Qatar, which broke the monopoly of Qatar Telecom  in the world's largest liquefied natural gas exporter, listed a 40 percent stake in a $1 billion IPO in July 2009.

The Qatari unit of British mobile operator Vodafone  won the bid for Qatar's second mobile telephone license for $2.12 billion in 2007.

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The company has said it plans to launch services including Blackberry, mobile broadband and mobile cash transfer, subject to regulatory approval later this year, as well as developing its billing systems and fixed-line business.

The company said it more than doubled its customer base in the fourth quarter of 2009 to 353,580 customers as of Dec. 31, representing 22 percent of Qatar's population.

Vodafone Qatar shares traded up 4.4 percent to an 11-week high on the Qatari bourse.

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